1. Field
This application relates to an improved method and apparatus for listening to multi-directional surround sound by mounting small loudspeakers in a miniaturized setting on a loudspeaker placement platform based on inches instead of the conventional setting of feet or meters for listening to multi-directional surround sound.
2. Prior Art
In all conventional multi-directional surround sound environments, the larger loudspeakers are placed in a large and full sized measured circle at prescribed angles and distances in feet or meters, usually in a room setting with chairs, or an auditorium or theater setting. Great pains and effort is exerted with large powered expensive amplifiers and loudspeakers in place in carefully designed sound-proofed and treated rooms with comfortable chairs and sofas.
A main concern and purpose of the present invention is cost to produce and cost to the consumer. The smaller speakers can be designed and produced to provide the highest quality at a much lower cost than those of a higher wattage rating. Amplifiers that drive the smaller speakers can be manufactured with much lower output ratings and at lower costs, and only very small speaker wire is needed for such small runs and low wattage, compared to large gauge and long cables required for large room setups. Wireless speakers can also be utilized.
The two speaker stereo effect was originally created by placing speakers in the front corners in an available studio mixing room, an enclosed mobile studio truck, or studio control room of perhaps twelve or fifteen by sixteen or twenty feet, which expanded to even more square footage to accommodate more spectators, producers, directors, etc. Some international standardization then began, with instructions such as the ITU-R BS. 775-1 published recommendations as in FIGS. 1 and 1B. But available room spaces of the consumer are also variable and usually limited in size. Standards have evolved whereas sound level measurements of the various speakers are in order to balance accurately with the front speakers and to achieve the same results in the home environment as was intended in the studio mix room.
In reference to multi-directional surround sound, nowhere in any descriptions in the prior art have we found any reference whatsoever to speaker placement in inches referring to a miniaturized setting, or to speaker distances measured in miniature scale in inches as opposed to feet or meters for delivering multi-directional or surround sound.
Drawings in the surround sound prior art usually always designate a chair, or a sofa, representing where a listener may be seated while listening to multi-directional or surround sound music or motion pictures. Dolby® Laboratories, Inc. also publishes production guidelines for mixing engineers, manufacturers, and consumers on setting up proper loudspeaker listening rooms with a goal of producing repeatable reference listening experiences in different listening environments. Although the International Standards (AES, EBU, ITU and SMPTE) alignment levels may differ, the guidelines are universal in maintaining a reasonable setup for Dolby® Laboratories' products as well as other manufacturers' products. All references are for feet or meters, it being understood internationally that the references are for studio mixing rooms, motion picture mixing setups for theaters and home theater setups for the consumer.
Descriptions of all the surround sound prior art regarding methods and apparatus for surround sound refer to speakers being placed in a room setting or a theater, and the assumption appears to be universal that the speaker distance to the listener is described and understood to be in feet or meters. Other of the surround sound prior art describes speakers placed at an arbitrary distance on chairs and on video gaming equipment with only a suggestion of reproducing sounds of the original studio mix only in an approximation of what the studio recording mixer intended. Nowhere in the surround sound prior art have we found any reference whatsoever to a distance in inches or in a miniaturized setting such as one inch to the foot, one and one quarter inch to the foot, one and one half inches to the foot, two inches to the foot, or any scale in miniature. Even the aforementioned Dolby® Inc. published recommendations as with their recommended angles of speaker placement to listener, show a large couch with four seats at the listener seating position and all viewing distances in feet.
The widely accepted professional standard for speaker placement for multi-channel sound reproduction is the ITU-R BS.775-1. The standard identifies a few well known points including the positioning of the reference listening point at the center of an imaginary circle having a radius between 2 m (78.74 inches or 6.56 feet) and 4 m (157.48 inches or 13.123 feet), which are minimum and maximum radius defined in the ITU-R BS.ll 16-1 recommendation. According to the standard, a center speaker should be placed at a zero-angle reference position directly ahead of the listening point. There should be 60° between the front left and right speakers, with the center speaker in the middle. Both rear speakers, left and right should be placed within 100° to 120° from the zero-angle reference position, also known as the center line. The acoustical axis of the front speakers—as defined by the speakers' manufacturer—should be approximately at the listener's ear height. The height of the rear speakers may be less critical and an inclination of up to 15° can generally be accepted. The standard also recommends that each of the five speakers be positioned more than 1.1 meter from any wall located behind the speaker.
Surround sound prior art historically has referred to a sound mixing room or large and small theater settings with the recording or mixing engineers facing an ultimate listening arrangement having loudspeakers spaced in front of, to the side and to the rear of the mixing engineer based on what has become standard placement, with the prescribed definitions of so-called 5.1, 7.1, 9.1, 10.1, 22.1, etc. All of these placements can be utilized in our improved miniaturized setting. Surround sound prior art definitions have derived from the studio and mixing engineers' experiences of remixing productions of music, movies, games etc., at a console, summing or mixing the various instruments, sound effects, audience reactions, explosions, battlefield, flyovers, etc., and listening to the loudspeakers extending from a one speaker monaural placement, to a wide extension of stereo, to speakers across the front, to side and rear speakers, emulating an approximate 360 degree span of sound.
In recording control rooms, it is common to place small loudspeakers on the meter bridge at the rear of the recording console. These are called near-field or close-field monitors because they are generally at an accepted distance of 3 to 5 feet from the listener. House, in application Ser. No. 11/273,876, describes his invention as “near-field” which is not anywhere near our miniature distances of 12 inches, whereas he states that all of his speakers can be located at a distance from the position of the listener, where R (radius) is generally between about 0.5 meter (19.685 inches) and 1.5 meter (59.055 inches), which is considerably closer than the range given in the ITU-R BS.1116-1 recommendation. Further, House states an embodiment with a diameter of about 1.2 meter (47.244 inches) so that the radius R was about 0.6 meter (23.622 inches), thus allowing the listener situated at that position to employ near-field monitoring techniques.
One of the inventors, Donald Meehan, a sound mixing engineer at CBS/Sony Music from 1963 to 1996, was actively mixing 2 channel stereo in those studios when Scheiber's Quadraphonic system was first introduced at the studio. Meehan and fellow engineer, Raymond Moore, shared the same mixing room and added a speaker to each corner in the back of the room and were among the first to mix Quadraphonic sound. Meehan recalls that no thought or consideration whatsoever was given to any other speaker placement except sitting and listening at a console in a mix room setting such as in Scheiber's description, and for playing it back in the same home listening setup approximating the studio mix room setup.
Further, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,746,792, Scheiber's continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 3,632,886, he defines and clarifies as it being in a “room”, whereas he writes: “The system provides for reproduction of sound from four loudspeakers located in the four corners of a room and having nominal positions with respect to the listener of left front, right front, left rear and right rear . . . . It is convenient to think in terms of a multidirectional sound system with four loudspeakers situated in the corner of a substantially square room reproducing material having four input signals corresponding in direction to the four loudspeakers utilized in reproduction. Such an arrangement is encompassed in the preferred embodiment of the system.”
Other surround sound prior art such as Scofield and Saunders' U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,747 introduces tiny speakers built into a pair of eyeglasses, whereas the two tiny front speakers are supported that they are “proximate” to the left and right ears, with no prescribed measurement nor distance from the ear, and not corresponding to what the recording mixing engineer heard and reproduced in the original recording. Other surround sound prior art introduces several tiny speakers located on the earphones above the head of the listener with channeling to the ears to simulate direction, with circuitry to induce a virtual artificial placement of the sound coming to each ear. In all of these surround sound prior art methods there is a suggestion of “virtual” and no true representation whatsoever of what the mixing engineers heard and re-recorded in their final mixes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,150, Eberbach states that “The surround sound effect is also more pronounced in miniature (close range) speaker configurations because the energy gradient between the right and left . . . .” However, there is no reference whatsoever to miniature scale and his drawings all depict a person sitting in a chair or couch with speakers placed at obviously more than “miniature” distances from the listener.
In Hooley's application Ser. No. 11/632,438, entitled “Miniature Surround Sound Loudspeaker”, there is no reference whatsoever to miniature scale placement of speakers. Juszkiewicz also refers to a room setting in U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,335 B2 and states that his system includes a cabinet having a bottom surface for placement upon a desk and having a top surface for supporting a computer monitor and that at least first, second and third speakers are housed in the cabinet. Fourth and fifth speakers are located remote from the cabinet. Thus, the cabinet will include the left front, center front and right front speakers along with the sub-woofer speakers, all of which will have outlets from the cabinet directed toward a person using the computer. The left and right rear speakers are remote speakers and will preferably be mounted on conventional microphone stands or the like placed in the room behind the user of the computer. Again there is no reference to miniaturized placement of speakers.
Additional surround sound prior art describes a simulation of surround sound within headphones, or earphones, claiming surround sound and sometimes referred to “virtual surround sound,” which in the true meaning, is not really surround sound at all, but a false representation based on manipulation of circuitry and loudness that creates a sense of distance or movement simulating “virtual” surround sound. Some surround sound prior art such as Sheng-Hsin Liao's U.S. Pat. No. 7,436,073B2, encompasses several drivers within each earpiece, suggesting front, side and rear placement of sound direction, but no consideration of the Inverse Square Law or reference to miniaturization, or International standards for multi-directional surround sound.
In the surround sound prior art, whether near field or far field, one must consider the various effects of standing waves, reflections off walls, speaker and amplifier deficiencies and equalization. This adds to the ultimate cost of treating the studio mixing room. The same kinds of problems occur also for the listener in the home or in the theater. In smaller rooms it is just not practical to use a 7.1 system, and a 5.1 room is often difficult or impossible to set up according to standards. However, surround sound in 7.1 is definitely becoming the norm for all gaming and motion picture production, and the present invention will serve those needs well.
Home theater and computer speakers utilizing the stereo and 5.1 concept are traditionally understood to be placed in a room setting with the design principles incorporated to go from very reasonably priced to very expensive. The present invention can accommodate either. The restrictions on placement of speakers in a studio, home or other location where a recording is to be played back often restrict where the speakers may be placed. Room sizes vary greatly, as do desks and platforms for the personal computer speakers. Most computers today are sold with 7.1 soundcards. However, establishing a listening area at the seating arrangement of a computer with any more than a two track stereo setup can be inconvenient and cumbersome, and even with that setup, there is usually no consideration of the original recording mixing circumstances. One usually just puts a speaker at each side of a computer monitor with no consideration of distance to listener. However, the present invention's miniaturized platform will accommodate the computer person easily.
In full size room settings utilizing the surround sound prior art, consideration is always in order for the various effects of standing waves, reflections off walls, speaker and amplifier deficiencies and equalization etc., possibly making the ultimate cost of treating any room as well as the studio mixing room extremely high. This treatment is not the case or necessary with a miniaturized system utilizing the present invention. Therefore, the miniaturized speaker platform could also easily be used by the mixing engineer. The same kinds of problems occur also for the ultimate listener in the home or in the theater in order to faithfully re-create the sound heard in the mixing room.
Extending to the usual 5.1 and 7.1 and higher speaker arrangements, the drawbacks and necessary preparations and expense in reproducing sound with the surround sound prior art are increased. In today's open area rooms there usually isn't even a place to hang the extra (two) surround channel speakers for 7.1 surround sound. Therefore, home consumers could create a 7.1 system only if they were looking at a large dedicated home theater room that has the depth and wall space required. In smaller rooms it just isn't practical to use a 7.1 system, and a 5.1 room is often difficult or impossible to set up. The miniaturized loudspeaker platform will accommodate easily.
Close speaker arrangement is suggested in video games and arcade consoles in the prior art with a person facing a machine with mounted speakers both on the apparatus and on the headrest or back of the unit or chair, only in a “proximate” position to the head of the player, or listener. However, there is no suggestion whatsoever of calculated and measured miniaturization mentioned or suggested. Other surround sound prior art suggests only an approximate representation of surround sound, and some with speakers placed in an enclosure to surround the listener with no specifications in inches. Surround sound prior art also mentions speaker mounting on automobile seats and/or airplane seats to simulate surround sound, and inventions of earphones that simulate and make false claims of “true surround sound” that only produce a “virtual” simulation of sounds around the listener.
The more expensive high powered amplifiers such as 500 to 1000 watt rated in most expensive home theater surround sound systems are certainly not required for the present invention, and a high quality amplifier with very little distortion and extremely lower power in watts can provide the ultimate listening experience at a fraction of the cost of the more expensive equipment and eliminate room acoustic treatment.
In the surround sound prior art utilization of full size speakers in a normal setting, adjustment of the delay between the front and rear speakers is important when calibrating a system. But in our miniature setting of the present invention, these delay settings are not required, since we are referring to inches instead of feet. And the sound reaches the ears in around 1/100th of a second at 12 inches from the speakers as compared to 1/10th of a second at 12 feet.
The purposes and advantages of such a setup in miniaturization are many. Close speaker arrangement is suggested in video games and arcade consoles in the surround sound prior art, with a person facing a machine with mounted speakers both on the apparatus and on the headrest or back of the unit or chair, only in a “proximate” position to the head of the player, or listener. These and other surround sound prior art merely suggest an approximate or arbitrary representation of surround sound, and some are made with speakers placed in an enclosure to surround the listener with no specification for speaker to ear distance. None of the surround sound prior art suggests details of the duplication of the original mixing room speaker placement in feet, as determined in a miniature setting as we do with the present invention. However, the present invention in miniature could be an advantage if utilized in those settings, providing a personal environment. The present invention will duplicate the large sale settings in a miniaturized setting. The term, “loudspeaker” will hereinafter be referred to as “speaker.”
The sound production in miniature concerning the present invention will equal the original recorded near field, also sometimes called close field, and/or far field mix from the studio utilizing loudness and power wattage at a fraction of the so-called “normal” listening levels and loudness. Much of the prior art make claims of surround sound, when in fact there is no surround whatsoever. Several have sounds bouncing off a wall with speaker arrangements that are mounted in a vertical tower manner in front of the listener. Another presents an array of speakers lined up in front of the listener, while others proximate body distance with reference to surround sound with the close mounting of video games and machines, and arbitrary automobile mounting on the backs of seats and mounting tiny speakers into eyeglass mountings. One surround sound prior art invention regarding surround sound vaguely mentions placing speakers on a seat or a chair, with only an arbitrary distance to listener. However, nothing has been found in the surround sound prior art with any suggestion of measured inches in a miniature placement as compared to feet or meters. Earphones and headphones have been invented that claim surround sound, but all of these have neglected the all important role of the human ear's pinna, which will be discussed later herein.
A sound wave is affected by the distance traveled, the humidity, and the frequency of the sound. The miniaturized setting is comparable to listening in a multitude of different real life settings and is especially useful and appealing to gamers, with the same considerations of distances of the ears to speakers. Standards have been instituted for placement in full size settings in feet and meters only, to include two track stereo up to 7.1 surround sound. Since rooms are so different and including large and small, high ceilings and low ceilings, then standardization in a home theater setting appears to be almost impossible and the listener may only be guessing as to what the recording mixing engineer intended.
Although we claim a unique placement of speakers not heretofore claimed and to be explained herein, the present invention makes no claims whatsoever to any new findings of surround sound or multi-directional circuitry, except for the embodiment of a miniaturized platform of 180 degrees behind and 90 degrees above the listener's ears, which will be explained later herein. The present invention provides a unique platform of prescribed dimensions for available small speaker placement in a miniature setting in inches compared to feet or meters, in scale, for any and all surround sound prior art regarding surround sound and/or directional sound reproduction. An example would be that if in a real life room setting left loudspeaker A and right loudspeaker B were placed twelve feet from the listener, the miniaturized placement of one inch to the foot, the speakers would now be placed twelve inches from the listener's center-point, which we define as the center of the head between the ears.
A main concern and purpose of the present invention is cost to produce and cost to the consumer. Smaller speakers can be designed and produced to provide the highest quality at a much lower cost than those of a higher wattage rating. Amplifiers that drive the smaller speakers can be manufactured with much lower output ratings and at lower costs, and only very small speaker wire is needed for such small runs and low wattage, compared to large gauge and long cables required for large room setups. Wireless speakers can also be utilized.
The following are a few of the known conventional prior art listening arrangements with their descriptions, all of which the Personal Miniaturized Loudspeaker Placement Platform can accommodate:
(a) Conventional Stereo, with two speakers placed in front of the listener, Dolby® Digital surround sound system that gives you completely independent multi-channel audio.
(b) Dolby® Digital EX, which creates 6 full-bandwidth output channels from 5.1-channel sources.
(c) Dolby® Pro Logic II, which is an improved technique used to decode vast numbers of existing Dolby® Surround sources.
(d) Dolby® Pro Logic IIx, which is a new technology enabling discrete multichannel playback from 2-channel or multi-channel sources.
(e) Dolby® Surround, which uses a 4-channel analog recording system to reproduce realistic and dynamic sound effects:
(f) Dolby® TrueHD, which is an advanced lossless audio technology developed for high-definition disc-based media including HD DVD and Bluray Disc.
(g) Direct Stream Digital (DSD) technology, which stores audio signals on digital storage media, such as Super Audio CDs.
(h) DTS 96/24, which offers an unprecedented level of audio quality for multi-channel sound on DVD video, and is fully backward-compatible with all DTS decoders.
(i) DTS digital surround, which was developed to replace the analog soundtracks of movies with a 6.1-channel digital sound track, and is now rapidly gaining popularity in movie theaters around the world.
(j) DTS Express, which is an advanced audio technology for the optional feature on Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD, which offers high-quality, low bit rate audio optimized for network streaming, and Internet applications.
(k) DTS-HD Master Audio, which is an advanced lossless audio technology developed for high-definition disc-based media including HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
(l) DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, which is an high resolution audio technology developed for high-definition disc-based media including HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
(m) HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), which is the first industry-supported, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface.
The aforementioned list does not preclude any new or undiscovered conventional listening arrangements of surround sound with their descriptions. While various embodiments of the invention have been described, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many more embodiments and implementations are possible within the scope of the invention. The Personal Miniaturized Loudspeaker Placement Platform can perform standardization in an exact manner with a perfect placement in inches as compared to feet, by recreating exactly what the mixing engineer heard in the original mix. And if the mix room specifications are published as to exactly what the speaker placement was at the time of the mix, then the home listener can re-create exactly what was intended by the mixing engineer in a miniaturized setting.
The first five figures represent the basis for the concept of miniaturization of multi-directional surround sound as compared to full size prior art, and the all important role of the “pinna” of the human ear. FIGS. 1A and 1B are the ITU-R BS.775-1 standards from the International Telecommunication Union published pages, which show recommended feet and angles for proper speaker placement for surround sound to mix or reproduce sound in a 5.1 configuration of speaker placement. FIG. 2A is a diagram with ITU standards recommendations for 5.1 and 7.1 speaker placement in a 24 foot circle with a 12 foot radius. Left front speaker is designated as LF. Right front speaker is designated as RF. Left rear is designated as LR. Right rear is designated as RR. Left 7.1 surround speaker is designated as LS, and Right 7/1 Surround speaker is designated as RS. The surround speakers are to be located at 135 to 150 degrees from the center point. The sub-woofer for a 5.1 and a 7/1 system is generally located on the floor. But with an embodiment shown in FIGS. 6A, 6B and 7, with the invention placed on a laptop computer stand, there is room for the subwoofer as well as gaming equipment and amplifiers on said stand behind the listener. FIG. 2B is a diagram of ITU standards recommendation for 5.1 and 7.1 speaker placement with a 12 inch radius and is identical to FIG. 2A but in a miniaturized 24 inch circle. This speaker placement defines distance to speakers from a center-point between the listener's ears inside the head. The distance from the listener center-point, which is the center of hearing inside the listener's head, to each speaker is the radius of the circle, and in this case, is approximately 12 inches. The center speaker is added for reference but is optional for the present invention. FIG. 3 is a representation of the Inverse Square Law, which holds the same principles for sound as for light, and holds true in a miniaturization of sound measurement as in actual size measurement. The plot of this intensity drop shows that it drops off rapidly. The sound intensity from a point source of sound will obey the Inverse Square Law if there are no reflections or reverberation.
In the angle shown in FIG. 3 the same sound energy is distributed over the spherical surfaces of increasing areas as d is increased. The intensity of the sound is inversely proportional to the square of the distance of the wave-front from the signal source. Example: 1d=1, 2d=4, 3d=9, 4d=16, etc. The inventor, Donald Meehan, in addition to being a sound engineer and sound mixing engineer, is also a long time expert in the business of miniature art, working mostly in one twelfth scale, or one inch to the foot, experimenting, making and photographing miniature objects in all miniature scales, including ½ inch to the foot, 1 inch to the foot, 2 inches to the foot, etc. His published book, “The Art Of Photographing Miniatures” describes action of light in space and how the effects of distance of light from a subject decreases logarithmically, in the exact same way that sound travels and decreases.
Both light and sound vary as the square of the distance and invokes the Inverse Square Law (See FIG. 3). An example of this are the f stops on a conventional camera such as the designations of f4, f6.3, f8, f11, f16, f22, f32 that all are familiar with. These f stops are derived from the indication of actual footage of light falling off in intensity as it moves away from a subject. Using a photographer's light meter, an example of this would be like the measurement of a certain amount of light from a 400 watt light on a subject at 4 feet with the shutter open perhaps one second. Moving the 400 watt light to 6.3 feet reduces the amount of light to half, or the equivalent of a 200 watt light on the subject. Moving the light to 8 feet away from the subject reduces the light on the subject to half again or the equivalent of a 100 watt light on the subject. Thus, it an be seen that moving the light one half the distance reduces it one fourth the intensity, and inversely, it increases the intensity the same as with sound. The realization that light as well as perspective in miniature photography acts the same in inches as in feet and that sound follows the same rules has led to this invention. Thus, the same conditions apply to sound in miniature. Under ideal conditions a free field could be represented by a sound signal being generated from a mountain peak. In real life situations however, rooms bounded by walls, floors and ceilings will interrupt the inverse square law at a distance in an average 30 foot square room at approximately 10-12 feet from the sound source. Nevertheless it is important to accept the notion that sound will diminish in intensity with distance. For example, in a typical classroom with a teacher's voice signal of 65 decibels at a three-foot distance from the teacher; at 6 feet away the sound intensity will be 59 decibels and at twelve feet it will diminish down to 53 decibels. If you were standing 20 feet from a loudspeaker, and were to move to 40 feet away from that loudspeaker, you would expect to see a drop in level of 6 dB. FIG. 4 Shows the human ear with its pinna and other parts. Manufacturers of surround sound earphones and many who make full size surround sound speaker units neglect the most important role of the human ear's pinna (pronounced as pin-nah), which helps the listener determine direction of sound from the rear (See FIG. 4).
The ten parts of the anatomy of the pinna in medical/scientific terms is indicated herein to underline the significance of its role in human hearing. A is the Cavum Conchae, B is the Tragus, C is the Crus of Helix, D is the Cyma Conchae, E is the Fossa Triangularis, F is the Crura of Antihelix, G is the Scaphoid Fossa, H is the Helix, I is the Antihelix, J is the Antitragus, and K is the Lobule. All of these parts play an important role in what we hear. The miniaturization in the present invention preserves the all important role of the pinna. The pinna which is the outer part of the ear serves to “catch” the sound waves and helps one determine the direction of a sound. If a sound is coming from behind or above the listener, it will bounce off the pinna in a different way than if it is coming from in front of or below the listener. This sound reflection alters the pattern of the sound wave. One's brain recognizes distinctive patterns and determines whether the sound is in front of, behind, above or below the listener. While reflecting from the pinna, sound also goes through a filtering process which adds directional information to the sound. The filtering effect of the human pinna preferentially selects sounds in the frequency range of human speech. Amplification of sound by the pinna, tympanic membrane and middle ear causes an increase in level of about 10 to 15 dB in a frequency range of 1.5 kHz to 7 kHz. This amplification is an important factor in inner ear trauma resulting from elevated sound levels. The pinna works differently for low and high frequency sounds. For low frequencies, it behaves similarly to a reflector dish, directing sounds toward the ear canal. For high frequencies, however, its value is thought to be more sophisticated. While some of the sounds that enter the ear travel directly to the canal, others reflect off the contours of the pinna first. These enter the ear canal at a very slight delay. Such a delay translates into phase cancellation, where the frequency component whose wave period is twice the delay period is virtually eliminated. Neighboring frequencies are dropped significantly. This is known as the pinna notch, where the pinna creates a notch filtering effect. Therefore, since the pinna helps define sounds coming from the back of the person, the present invention with 5.1 and 7.1 assures of faithfully reproducing sounds coming from behind and to the side of the listener the same as a full size speaker setup or real life listening. The aforementioned delay and phase cancellation is no different in the miniaturized setup.
FIG. 5 is a drawing from Scheiber's U.S. Pat. No. 3,632,886 of his Quadrasonic sound system with a chair (unnumbered by Scheiber) drawn in with our arrow pointing to said chair. There is no doubt that Scheiber's Quadrasonic sound system refers to a room setting and shows a drawing of an obvious seat or a chair and fails to show a number reference, but the seat or chair is surrounded by drawn speakers designated 14L, 14R, 14F, 14X. And then he states, “Reference to locating sound on a circle around a listener means the ability to locate virtual sound sources in front of, behind, or to the sides of a listener but is not intended to limit or define the precise placement of the speakers.” However, it is obvious here that Scheiber refers to placement in feet, with no reference whatsoever or consideration of a miniature setup in miniature scale or inches. The seat or chair for the listener is drawn in and included in a drawing of U.S. Pat. No. 3,632,886 and not numbered nor referred to. We have placed an arrow pointing to the drawn seat or chair in FIG. 5. Scheiber continues, “The benefits of the invention can best be provided where at least one of the speakers is located behind the listener and the speakers are arranged in fact on the circumference of a circle, with the listener located at the center . . . . Where a full four-channel system is used, it is possible to locate a source of sound at any point on a full circle around the listener.” It is obvious from Scheiber's drawing of the chair and Scheiber's writing of “any point” clearly means “any point” in feet, specifically of a room, and has no reference in any way to a miniaturized placement of speakers. But, in the present invention, we are, in fact, defining the placement of speakers to mean distance strictly in “inches” at the prescribed angles as compared to feet in a normal setting. Therefore, any reference whatsoever of Scheiber's writing and drawing in U.S. Pat. No. 3,632,886 clearly refers to speaker placement in feet and in no way refers to a miniaturized placement of speakers.